Thursday, February 7, 2008

Councillors Van Der Kley, Hamilton, Angel and others have acknowledged that they see the demolition of the hall as the best option for the community despite the majority of the local community making it quite clear that they do not want the hall demolished. Councillor Hamilton alone received over 600 signatures to petitions to save the hall taken over only a few weeks.This is nothing short of contempt for the constituents that they are meant to represent on this issue.Councillors who have voted for demolition can only be described as participating in irredeemable statutory vandalism of our precious history.If Clr Van Der Kley alone had voted with the other mid mountain councillors, Searle and McInnes, then the hall would be saved from demolition. The demolition of a community asset by those entrusted with its protection must be regarded as the worst form of vandalism.

Councillors, having the power to cast their votes to stop demolition must therefore be regarded as the principal causes of this statutory vandalism in the eyes of the people of the Blue Mountains.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Residents of the Blue Mountains are entitled to know more about the large amount of money apparently lost in sub-prime investments made by the Blue Mountains City Council in the U.S. Our money that is!Was it two, four or six million dollars , or was it even more? I know that not all councils in NSW were foolish enough to invest in this scheme. Did money change hands as a commission one wonders? and to whom was it paid? We have a right to know the answers.We recently phoned Council about the possibility of forming a volunteer group to assist in restoring the unique contour map of Australia sculpture in Wilson Park, Lawson. wilsonparklawson.blogspot.comI was told that Council had absolutely no money to spend on assistance for any project like this.More neglect for Lawson! The unique contour map is actually the only one of its kind in Australia, built in 1932.Where has all our money gone? Down the drain in a dodgy US scheme that's where!!!

Now, the majority of Councillors, thanks to Mayor Angel's casting vote, want the 104 year old Mechanics Institute Hall demolished, and soon! Yet the highway widening outside the hall is still years away. The reason for the hasty destruction of the hall and for what purpose we will eventually find out. It definitely isn't for the widening of the highway as they have been telling us for years.

We now discover after the amazing offer by RTA, that to demolish the old hall is actually more expensive than it is to retain it!

To borrow from a famous statement. If demolition takes place, Van Der Kley, Hamilton , Angel and other councillors will be remembered forever asthe Councillors who broke the hearts of the people of Lawson and the Blue Mountains.

Congratulations councillors, at least you will be remembered for something.A puzzle that is concerning many of us is that while Councillors are asking for government funding at this stage, they have never investigated any avenues of applying for any in the past.It would appear a deal has been struck somewhere, sometime with a developer.